Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/193

THE OLD ADMIRAL It was fifty years ago,

Upon the Gallic Sea,

He bore the banner of the free,

And fought the fight whereof our children know.

The deathful, desperate fight!—

Under the fair moon's light

The frigate squared, and yawed to left and right.

Every broadside swept to death a score!

Roundly played her guns and well, till their fiery ensigns fell,

Neither foe replying more.

All in silence, when the night-breeze cleared the air,

Old Ironsides rested there,

Locked in between the twain, and drenched with blood.

Then homeward, like an eagle with her prey!

O, it was a gallant fray,

That fight in Biscay Bay!

Fearless the Captain stood, in his youthful hardihood;

He was the boldest of them all,

Our brave old Admiral!

And still our heroes bleed,

Taught by that olden deed.

Whether of iron or of oak

The ships we marshal at our country's need,

Still speak their cannon now as then they spoke;

Still floats our unstruck banner from the mast

As in the stormy Past.

Lay him in the ground:

Let him rest where the ancient river rolls;

Let him sleep beneath the shadow and the sound

Of the bell whose proclamation, as it tolls,

Is of Freedom and the gift our fathers gave.

Lay him gently down:

The clamor of the town 163